Tag: rational

The title of this post may surprise you as rather odd. After all, what could religion and milk possibly have in common?? Well, surprisingly, one key factor, but I’ll get to that later. Most of us have been raised to drink milk to make us big, healthy and strong by way of the calcium, vitamin D and other nutrients present in cow-milk.

Late last year, I read online that an Ice Cream shop in London had begun using human breast milk in a select few of their ice creams. I was intrigued by the concept, and now and then, I would ask friends if they would ever try it. The usual response is a scrunched up face, following by something like, “How disgusting!”. I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.

If you have read my author bio, or my letter to my future self, you will make the astute observation that I call myself idiot rather often, and you may ask why do I do this

The answer lies in a good friend of mine. It was some years back, as we were having one of our many debates, Israel vs Palestine I believe it was. Upon concluding our debate, with no clear victor, he said something along the lines of “What do I know, I’m stupid…”. That struck me as rather odd. He was, and still is, one of the most intelligent people I know. I would never had admitted something like that about myself. As far as I was concerned, I was at least somewhat intelligent.

I believe I finally understand his meaning. If you admit to yourself that you are smart, you will eventually begin assuming you are smart, and not keep up the necessary hard work and sacrifice needed to actually stay smart. If you keep telling yourself you are intelligent, or reveling in others praise of your intelligence, eventually you become dumb; the world just moves on by.

We live in a fast-moving world, bombarded every day with information from a multitude of sources. Just to keep up to date with the latest issues, requires hours a day of reading, watching and social interaction.

I spent hours a day reading articles on philosophy, science, politics, economics, and technology on my computer at home, my laptop when my girlfriend is showering, on my tablet when I am out and about, on my iPhone when I am and about and forgot my tablet, and on my Kindle when I tire of backlit screens. I do all this to try to be up-to-date, to know stuff, and stay an idiot, for I can never be smart. I don’t do this just to release a book. It is my default mode, I just like to know everything, and I like to pass on that knowledge to others. But to be smart is a fantasy, a goal that will never be realized. It took me a few years to realize that, which just proves the point of this post.

At the end of the day, we are all idiots at a lot of different things, while only competent in a few areas, and only smart in even less. The best thing we can do is let go of the fantasy that we are smart. I get a little better at it every day.

Like this:

Lately, as more and more people find out I’m writing a book, either by me shouting from the rooftops or those closest to me telling others, they have naturally asked me what it’s about, and that is not an easy question to answer succinctly because the book is about almost everything, so I have to blabber on for minutes, boring them in the process. So this post will try to remedy that in an easier fashion that I can verbalize when put on the spot.

The book covers 5 disciplines, with 4 sub-chapters each devoted to a specific topic within that discipline. At its most basic level, the book tries to conveniently, rationally, and simply explain each topic, and instigate deeper questions, and thoughts to the reader, hopefully providing a simple blueprint of the world to counter all the noise emanating from each and every direction in this day and age.

Here is the outline of the book. I would like to know what, if any first reactions anyone has by reading the below contents. Am I biting off more than I can chew? Please let me know in the comments. I would love to hear your opinions.

Random Rationality

Rational Explanations for the Busy Mind

Introduction

Philosophy

Are We Special?
The Meaning of Life
The Simplest Explanation of God
Wouldn’t Heaven Be Boring?

Science

The How of it All
Why We Need Space
An Atomic Dream
Is Free Will Free?

Politics

Are We Responsible?
Why is Politics’ Still Relevant?
How to Fix Politics
The Drug War is Inhumane